• THE recent election in Israel makes difficult reading for Jewish people in Camden, many of whom have a deep attachment to that country.

The state of the Jewish left in Israel, which has been in freefall for three decades, gaining just four seats in the new Knesset, is a reflection of the decline in the belief in a peace process among the Israeli electorate.

Almost everyone now knows that the occupation of the West Bank is permanent. This has closed the option of a two-state solution for all time.

This has important bearings for those in Camden and beyond who cling to the idea of a separate state for the Palestinian people. It is a recognition that the mostly Arab Palestinians, of equal number to the Jewish population, both a bit more than seven million, are and will be a permanent underclass.

As your readers will know, this situation is now called apartheid by numerous international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International. They arrive at this conclusion from a careful analysis of the experiences of Palestinians and Jews in all the areas under Israel control, and agree that the UN legal definition of apartheid, created from the experiences in South Africa, can be accurately applied to the whole territory under de-facto Israeli control, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

The idea of Jewish supremacy is hard for many to hear, and some will fear it will encourage anti-Semitism. This we must prevent at all costs.  But we cannot turn away from this stark realisation that a two-state solution is impossible to achieve and apartheid an enduring reality.

The appointment of the leader of Jewish Power to the ministry of national security with control over policing in the Occupied Territories is just the latest expression of this.
I asked a young Palestinian man in Borin, near Nablus in the West Bank, his feelings about the election. He told me “things only get worse” and the surrounding of his village by marauding Jewish settlers makes me fearful for his safety and that of his family and neighbours.

The cementing of Israeli control is only too obvious to those who care to look. Pretending a two-state solution is possible only prolongs the agony for the Palestinian people. Calling for an end to apartheid and equal human rights for all however, as requested by Palestinian civil society, is something that all liberal-minded people can share.

Whatever the solution, apartheid cannot be the answer.

So, to young Jewish liberals in Camden who wish the best for Israel, I ask, what is the future for Palestinians? Is it Jewish supremacy, expulsion, or equal human rights for all?

DR PAUL O’BRIEN
Address supplied